Paddy Hill, one of the six innocent Irish men imprisoned for 16 years for the Birmingham pub bombings, has written to Tony Blair calling for a public apology for one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

He has also discussed the issue with Chris Mullin, the Home Office minister who led the Birmingham Six's campaign for justice before entering parliament. Hill said Mullin had promised to raise the matter with the Prime Minister.

Mr Hill, who now runs the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation in Scotland, said he welcomed Tony Blair's apology to the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. However, he said it had left other innocent victims feeling more stigmatised than ever.

'Tony Blair did the decent, honest and courageous thing in apologising publicly to the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. I'm delighted for them because they can now begin to heal. But it's left a big cloud over everyone else's head. The stigma is worse than ever now because the implication is that, because he apologised to them but not us, we must be guilty.'

A public apology, he added, would go a long way to ending an ongoing whispering campaign that surrounds victims of miscarriages of justice.

'When there is no apology, there remains a perception that we are in fact guilty, but were lucky enough to be freed on a technicality. It's an awful position for innocent people to be in and adds to the stress and depression that many people experience when they are released.'

Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four, repeated his calls yesterday for public apologies to be issued to all victims of miscarriages of justice, including the Birmingham Six.

Conlon said closure would only come about for the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven once they received the medical and counselling help promised by Blair during the meeting.

Mr Hill has also written to both the Westminster and Holyrood governments urging them to invest in a specialised retreat to help counsel innocent people who have been wrongfully imprisoned. At the moment, victims of miscarriages of justice receive far less assistance - usually a one-way train ticket back to their home plus a £46 discharge grant - than the guilty, who often spend a period of up to three years on a pre-release, phased, programme preparing them for their freedom, in addition to extensive support after their release.

A new study by the University of Surrey found that long-term guilty prisoners reintegrate into society far more smoothly than the innocent.

The report studied 10 men - four 'lifers' who had admitted their guilt, and six miscarriage of justice victims. It found that the guilty men endured little long-term psychological damage and managed to reintegrate into society very quickly.

In contrast, almost all of the innocent victims remained deeply scarred by their experience, with most suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs.

A Downing Street spokesman said there would be no comment until Mr Hill's letter had been received.